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Living in a Preternatural World with Nancy Gideon & Win an Amazon GC!

First, a quick housekeeping note. I’d messed up the days, but today I really AM over at Rainy Day Ramblings, taking part in the “Something Wicked” event and talking about five things that scare me the most….and undead pirates and elves didn’t make the list! I’m also giving away a book of choice to a commenter, so head on over.

Now, please help me give a warm welcome to author Nancy Gideon today.Nancy’s most recent release is Prince of Shadows, the eighth book in her Moonlight series.Prince of Shadows was published in May of this year by Pocket Star.

With over 54 sales to her credit since her first publication in 1987, Portage, Mich., author Nancy Gideon’s writing career is as versatile as the romance market itself. Her books encompass genres from historicals and regencies to contemporary suspense and the paranormal. Her works have been published overseas in Romanian, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Danish, German, Icelandic and Chinese, among other languages.She’s the mother of two grown sons, one married and proud producer of her grandson and the other shanghaied into being her assistant.She works full time as a legal assistant, and when not at the keyboard, feeds a Netflix addiction along with all things fur, fin and fowl.To learn more about Nancy, visit her website or check her out on blogspot.

ABOUT PRINCE OF SHADOWS:A gentle lady held hostage in a deadly play for power, Kendra Terriot’s only means of survival for herself and her family is to play to a careful courtship game. The one she chooses from the dangerous Terriot heirs will inherit the coveted crown, but the one she longs to have rescue her belongs to another. Favored son of their cruel Shifter leader, the only calm in Cale Terriot’s necessarily violent life is his childhood love for his delicate distant cousin whom he’s pledged to make his queen. With Kendra at his side, he knows he can become the kind of ruler his clan needs, but first he must learn how to become the kind of mate she desires. In a treacherous race for control, where weakness means death, Cale must prove he’s not the beast his beauty fears and still protect her, especially once her chosen love returns to free her. The only way to win her respect could mean surrendering his throne. The only way to win her heart could mean letting her go. (ebook only)

And now, let’s hear from Nancy…

Living in a Preternatural World

by Nancy Gideon

I LOVE this time of year!The air gets cool.Leaves rustle with every breeze as if someone . . . somethingis stirring out where the night settles in deep and dark, and imagination runs rampant. Burr! That chill of the season.I’m a Halloweenaholic!I’m crazy about the scares, the drama and, yes, the candy corn. All my favorite horror movies are running 24/7. Costume shops packed with drooling monsters, witches and zombies are popping up in the malls . . . and they’re all wondering what to wear.

Since I live in an apartment, I don’t have a yard to decorate.I miss the excitement of that ringing doorbell and shouts of “Trick-or-Treat!”So I do the next best thing – I recreate that thrill virtually!

For the third year, I’m hosting my Haunted Open House. Filled with fun, frights and things that go bump in the night, it’s my unabashed homage to the supernatural, featuring special guest PRN/UF authors and my favorite blogger/reviewers, giveaways and tips on how to make this the best Halloween EVER!Doors are open October 23-30. This year my real treat is a Giveaway Blog Hop with over 60 doorsteps to visit.Sign up if you love to hear that “Trick-or-Treat.” Or follow along from stop to stop if you’re just in it for the goodies!

The best thing about being a paranormal author is never having to leave that spooky other world where anything can—and does—happen, where my characters are bigger than life and my villains are from your nightmares.I can hand out goodies all year round!PRINCE OF SHADOWS is the latest treat from my dark paranormal “By Moonlight” shape-shifter series.

Meet Cale Terriot, my dangerous, tattooed, rowdy rock-n-roll hero:

“I’m a prince.Really! As one of the Twelve of the House of Terriot, I’m in line to inherit the throne from my father, Bram and rule our territories in the Southwest. Fighting is serious business in my family. We have to be ready to protect our own or go to war at any minute.Though our basic form is reserved for battle or mating because of the danger involved, sometimes there’s no other way to avenge an insult done to me and my family or to the honor of my future mate, which is always a pretty bad f-ing idea. Someone in my position has no friends. Everyone’s a potential enemy, even family. Especially family.

“Growing up as the runt of the litter in a dog-eat-dog warrior clan, the struggle just to survive became a fight to excel once I met my life-mate Kendra. To win her, I knew I’d have to be stronger, faster, braver, smarter—since I couldn’t do anything about that taller thing—than my half-brothers in order to claim my rightful inheritance and my queen, and restore respect to my clan. To have and hold those things, I’m willing to do whatever it takes. Because I’ll only get one chance.”

–Cale, Prince in the House of Terriot

To get Halloween off to an early start, I’m giving away a $10 Amazon gift card so you can load up on your favorite treats! Thanks, Nancy! You must leave a comment to be entered for a chance to win the $10 Amazon gift card. Share your Halloween tradition! I grew up in a very small town, so every year when I was young, my little neighborhood buddies and I would don our costumes and wander a half-mile in either direction, collecting goodies. It was small-town America in a safer time, so we never (or our parents) thought about any dangers lurking about. (And if you go to the Rainy Day Ramblings link at the top of the page you can read about my worst Halloween experience and my current Halloween tradition!)Share yours to enter for the $10 GC! (If you’re outside the U.S., I will substitute an equivalent purchase from Book Depo as long as you’re in a country where BD offers free shipping.)

Growing up we always went trick or treating after dinner when it got dark, but in the small town I live in now, trick or treat is always held the Thursday before Halloween from 5-6. This year Halloween is ON Thursday, so there’s been a big mess. Do we trick or treat ON HALLOWEEN or not?!?! So funny…

we don’t really celebrate halloween here but it has been a few years my roleplyaing club has started the tradition to hold a special Chullu roleplaying party with costumes; strange food, ambience ( game in teh dark^^) and decoration^^

Hi Nancy! I am a HUGE fan of yours! We do Halloween up big at our house. We do the big display in the front yard and on Halloween itself, we participate in my husband’s safe Trick or Treat for 2 hours (fun time but exhausting). We then hurry home and activate the graveyard, bake up the jack-o-lantern pizzas, watch scary movies and answer the door. Of course, it then takes a week to put everything away (LOL). Thanks so much for the awesome giveaway and Happy Halloween to you!!! bpatrick64113@sbcglobal.net

As a kid we’d be dress up for the school Halloween parties, then in the evening I’d meet up with friends and we’d all go trick or treating. I’d come home with huge bags of candy. Then my mom would go through it all, steal all the caramels.lol. Now, I am not a big fan of Halloween so no traditions.But I do like to see my nieces and nephews all dressed up.

I loved taking my kids treat or tricking and making their costumes! It was always fun to watch them sort and swap their candy. My daughter still hasn’t forgiven me when she was 5 we ran out of candy to give at the door, so we gave some of her loot away!

When I was a kid, I would dress up and go door-to-door collecting candy in a pillow case. And that night when it was over, I’d sort my candy into piles and order them from most to least favorite. The post-Halloween tradition was my dad stealing all my candy and trying to be sneaky about it!

My tradition was every year my friends and I would dress up and go trick or treating all around the neighborhood. We went for miles! Also my older brother would “steal” me to take me to some of his friends parents houses who didnt get to many trick or treaters and they would spoil me with candy. One of them lived in a haunted house! It was a very beautiful old farm house that was haunted by the daughter or the original builder. I think he may have killed her or something but my brother said he’s seen her too when he used to stay over there sometimes. It was a very sad story. Now though that I’m older I just binge on horror movies and pass out candy to the little ones.

Over here Halloween has only become popular the last few years.We do have something similar here: Sint Maarten’s Day. It’s on the 11th of November and children will go from door to door with lanterns (not dressed up) and they have to sing a song to get candy. But even that tradition I only took part in long after my childhood days, because I grew up in a small vilage where they didn’t celebrate Sint Maarten…i’m still jealous my older brother once got to celebrate Sint Maarten with a friend who lived in a city where they did celebrate.

I don’t remember any bad experiences trick or treating. Up until I was 11 or so, I went with either my family or with friends (accompanied by an adult). I always had a lot of fun and got lots of goodies.

When I was a kid my sisters and I dressed up in our Halloween costumes and trick or treated in our neighborhood. We roamed the neighborhood for a couple of hours and went home to see what we had collected. Good times!

Our tradition is to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney’s Magic Kingdom AND a Halloween Horror Night at Universal. We also go over to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Halloween week and walk around the campsites. You wouldn’t believe how elaborate some of the campers’ decorations are1 Some of the campers come in before Halloween and decorate for Halloween and as soon as Halloween is past, they decorate for Christmas (when we also go back to enjoy those.)

luckily I live in a house now so I get the trick or treaters at the door (love the little ones, they’re always so cute no matter the costume). my hometown had a halloween parade when I was young though didn’t care to go to it myself, however my current neighborhood has one on the sunday afternoon before & it’s one of the things I love about the neighborhood. it’s so nice to see so many kids dressed up (along w/ some parents & pets). they even manage to get a police car or fire truck to lead the parade along w/ the high school band.

I have never celebrated Halloween. I used to watch my friends and classmates dressed up in a costume for every Halloween school events. My parents were from another culture and didn’t recognize Halloween as an important event. Now that I’m all grown up, it’s hard to go trick or treating.

When I was young, I always went trick-or-treating with my friends. We loved making our own costumes and going from door to door in the neighborhood. Now on Halloween my husband and I enjoy handing out candy to the children in their spooky costumes.

When I was young we went all over town, got invited into peoples houses so they could see the costumes, were given popcorn balls, homemade packs with loose candy, apples, all that stuff we can’t allow any more. My birthday is the day after Halloween, so it’s always been my favorite holiday. My worst memory is when my mom took my Halloween haul and used it for party favors at my birthday party. How could she take my hard earned loot??!!

I used to love going to school in my costume on the Friday before Halloween. Then Halloween night we would go trick-or-treating with the pillowcases & 1 parent while the other stayed home & answered the door. There was close to a hundred kids in our area when I was in elementary school so we always had tons of loot!

We didn’t really have any fun traditions, she just dressed up and went trick or treating. Now that I have my own family, we do something different every year. We either go to our neighborhood, go to a mall or down to our main street where all the shops stay open or if it lands on a weekend, we travel home so the kids can go with their cousins. This is the first year my oldest wont be trick or treating. He decided he was too old and wants to stay home and hand out candy. I’m super sad about that 🙁

Alas, Halloween is not celebrated here. We may have Halloween themed parties or shop displays but not trick-o-treating! But we do celebrate Lantern Festival so I imagine it may be a bit similar. The kids in the neighborhood walk around with their pretty lighted lanterns and most houses are decorated with it. 🙂

Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday! I decorate our porch and house the first weekend in October, and I plan my and my husband’s costumes in the summer–my mom used to be a seamstress so she helps me make my costume, necessitating the planning-ahead. The weekend before Halloween, we go to a big party that has a costume contest, which we’ve won before in the couples category. I run the Halloween potluck lunch at work (and yes I wear my costume to work). On Halloween, we always watch Hocus Pocus while the trick-or-treaters come around 😀 When we have the time and enough of our friends are available, we also have a Halloween costume party the weekend after Halloween. I love everything about the holiday!